


Music Maker

by seratonation



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alien Culture, Alien Technology, Aliens Make Them Do It, M/M, Marriage, Music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-03
Updated: 2008-05-03
Packaged: 2017-11-02 06:25:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/365924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seratonation/pseuds/seratonation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John collapses while on a mission to an uninhabited planet, and now he’s hearing music. He also marries Rodney. Again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Music Maker

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta (omg it’s actually beta’d!) [](http://ferret-kitty.livejournal.com/profile)[**ferret_kitty**](http://ferret-kitty.livejournal.com/) , she did an awesome job. Any remaining mistakes are my own.

“Wait,” John stopped them, “do you hear that?” He cocked his head, listening.

 

“I can’t hear-” Rodney began.

 

“Shh!” he whispered, his eyes where glazed, his face blissful.

 

“I thought you said this planet is uninhabited,” Rodney accused, glaring at Teyla.

 

“It is,” she said, reproachfully. “What do you hear, Colonel?”

 

“It’s music,” he said and collapsed.

 

Rodney, who was closest, tried to catch him before he fell, but he was too slow, and John crumpled to the ground. 

 

“Colonel? Colonel!” he said, not even noticing when Teyla drew her gun and Ronon disappeared in to the bushes.

 

A chilling thought crossed his mind and he checked for a pulse. It was weak but it was there. He sighed with relief and checked for any sighs of what happened but there was no blood or anything, he started to panic.

 

“John, John, wake up, come on,” he said, as if John was doing this on purpose. He patted him on the side of the face with the back of his hand, but nothing happened.

 

“John!” he yelled, not because he thought it’d do any good, but because he needed to stop himself shaking the prone form.

 

“We have to get out of here,” he told Teyla as Ronon came back, “before they have time to come back to finish the job.”

 

“There’s no one there,” Ronon said, “or any sign of others.”

 

“Help me,” he told Ronon, ignoring the comment, and they picked him up and went to the ‘jumper.

 

***

 

When John woke up, it took him a while to realize he was in the infirmary. He turned his head slightly to the right and saw Rodney in a chair near by, head back, mouth slightly open and fast asleep. He turned his head to the other side and saw Carson in his office with his head resting on his arms, likewise asleep. The dimmed lights outside suggested it was late, but he could hear, in the distance someone playing something, a guitar maybe, and he let it lull him to sleep.

 

***

 

The next time he woke up it was morning. Rodney was still there, his laptop in his lap and a coffee cup nearby.

 

John slowly reached over to the cup but Rodney saw him and pulled it out of reach. “Not until Carson clears you,” he said.

 

John pouted. “Fine.” His head still felt foggy and he tried to remember how he had ended up here this time. He wasn’t surprised to find that he couldn’t remember. 

 

“So what was it?” he asked, going for casual, “Poison? Drugs? Magic? Hey, are Teyla and Ronon alright? They’re not here, are they?” he asked looking around, suddenly remembering them. It shouldn’t have taken him this long, they were on his team-

 

“Relax, they’re fine,” Rodney said. “They just went to get some breakfast and we don’t know what it was this time; do you remember anything weird just before you collapsed?”

 

“I collapsed?” he asked.

 

“Yes, we were walking, then you just-” he flailed. “Don’t you remember?”

 

John shook his head.

 

Rodney’s hand went to his radio. “Carson, Colonel Sheppard is awake.”

 

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” he asked, starting to get annoyed. 

 

“We were on PX7-653 and you stopped us and asked if we could hear anything, when we told you we couldn’t you said it was music and you just collapsed.”

 

“Just like that?” he asked, incredulous.

 

“Yeah, Carson checked you over and there was no evidence of anything, no darts, no physical harm, all the scans came back clean. The only thing was that you just seemed really relaxed.”

 

“Ah, I see our patient is awake,” Carson said, walking in, Teyla and Ronon behind him, “how are you feeling?”

 

“I feel fine,” he insisted, “really. Just a bit tired.” 

 

“I know,” Carson said taking out his stethoscope, “but I’d like to check you over anyway.” 

 

John sighed but he let Carson do his prodding and poking. When he finally gave John a clean bill of health, John asked, "Am I done here?"

 

“For now, but I’d like you to stay in the city for a week or so, for observation.”

 

“I’m fine, Doc” he said, exasperated, “you said so yourself.” 

 

“You collapsed for no apparent reason; that’s not fine, lad.” 

 

John sighed again. He just couldn’t argue with the doctor, especially when he had that ‘I’m doing it for you’ look and the ‘it's all in your best interest’ tone.

 

He went to tell Elizabeth.

 

***

 

That night he heard the guitar again, it sounded close. He wondered who it was as he lay in bed. It wasn’t actually playing a tune insofar as he could tell; it just sounded like random plucking on the strings. It could’ve also been a harp, or those things that were smaller, he racked his brain for it’s name, lyre, possibly. 

 

After a few minutes he decided he wasn’t able to sleep and got up to see who it was who suddenly liked playing music in the middle of the night. But after walking around for what felt like hours without getting any closer to the sound, he gave up and went back to bed.

 

***

 

The next few days passed in much the same way, he’d waste away his time training (getting his ass kicked by either Ronon or Teyla), helping Rodney in the lab (annoying Rodney in the lab, and occasionally turning things on) and avoiding Elizabeth (because she kept trying to remind him of the paperwork backlog). Even with this busy schedule, he had time for Dr. Beckett’s regular checkups, which were twice a day. 

 

And then, when he finally would stumble back to his quarters at the end of the day, he’d get up less then an hour later to look for the mysterious music maker, only to have it evade him.

 

After a week of observation, Carson finally cleared him for off world missions again because he was still perfectly fine, as far as Carson knew. Of course, John didn’t tell him of the slight paranoia that was developing in the back of his mind because not only was he hearing things at night, but sometimes he’d catch a few strains in the middle of the day, just at the edge of hearing, but there was never anyone around, so he never mentioned it to anyone. 

 

***

 

On his first mission back, he got married to Rodney.

 

The people of the planet were a peaceful society, and the energy source was in the temple, so it went like this:

 

“Only newly weds may enter the Temple of Light.” said the Elder, a small bald man with dark skin and clasped hands.

 

“Well, what a coincidence, Rodney and I have just recently been married,” John said, hands steepled over his P90, smiling at the Elder and the other villagers that seemed to have congregated around them.

 

“No,” said the Elder, drawing out the word, making it sound grave, but his smile never faltering, “your marriage must be over looked by our Gods and you do not have the proper markings to indicate this.”

 

“Markings?” Rodney asked, looking up from his tablet.

 

“Oh, yes, you must have shared blood.”

 

“Blood?” Rodney asked looking pale, “how much blood are we talking here?”

 

“Enough to show that you are willing to bond with your partner, in body as well as spirit.” 

 

Rodney opened his mouth to ask for more specific details, no doubt, but John elbowed him in the side.

 

“That will be fine,” John said, “I’m sure my… partner here will have no problems, but will you give me and my team mates a moment alone.”

 

“Of course.” The Elder bowed and the villagers watching them returned to their daily routines.

 

“OK, me and Rodney will go, because he needs to see the shiny energy source, and I’ll go with him,” John said quietly. “I need you to stay out here in case things get difficult, and I need you to check in by radio every 3 hours, if we miss any and still haven’t replied in 20 minutes, you come in and get us, no matter what, OK?”

 

Teyla nodded as if they hadn’t done this a million times before. He turned around to see the Elder waiting patiently by the steps of the Temple. 

 

“Come on, Rodney,” he drawled, “let's get married.”

 

“Oh, please. I bet you’ve been waiting to say that,” Rodney said, stepping in to step with him. “Besides an energy source is not shiny.”

 

“Rodney,” he said, exasperated.

 

“It’s not! It glows sure, but it’s not _shiny_.” 

 

“OK,” John said, sounding unconvinced.

 

The Elder was facing the stairs, but when they approached he turned around, a large, sharp looking knife in his hands.

 

Rodney stopped and held up a finger to ward him off. “Where do you think your going with that?”

 

“You must cut the hand of your mate, and he yours, to share blood, this shows your dedication and faith to each other.” 

 

“That’s new,” mutters John, taking the knife that was being handed to him. “OK,” he said to Rodney, “you cut my left hand and I’ll cut yours. You can go first.” And he handed him the knife, handle first.

 

“OK, I can do this,” he muttered under his breath, taking the knife. He took John’s left hand in his own, palm facing upwards, and then he slowly slid the blade along John's palm, letting the blood pool up in his hand. There was the quite sound of an indrawn breath.

 

“Now you,” John said, taking the knife as if it hadn’t just cut his hand open.

 

Rodney held his left hand in his right to stop it shaking, and with a quick swipe he was cut as well.

 

“Now you put your hands together,” said the Elder and they did, then he brought out a red ribbon and tied them together making a bow. Then he held their hands in both of his, closed his eyes and turned his face toward the sky.

 

“May the Gods look upon this marriage as Holy and Sacred. May Henry bless them with sufficient wealth, may Stewart bless them with favorable health and may the Great Alfred bless them with lasting happiness.”

 

Rodney opened his mouth to protest, but John sent him a look and he went quite, but gave John an eye roll. Fortunately the Elders eyes were still closed so he missed the whole exchange.

 

“Who will be their witness?” the Elder said looking down again, at the crowd that had mysteriously redeveloped around them.

 

“I will,” Teyla’s voice rose over the crowd, and she came forward.

 

The Elder cut the ribbon on the other side of the bow that he had tied and retied it around Teyla’s wrist giving her two bows on either side of her wrist.

 

“May you always be blessed to over look this sanctified joining,” he said.

 

She gave him a polite smile. “Thank you.”

 

The Elder returned to them. “You may lower your hands,” he told them. “You must now stay in the Temple of Light to complete this marriage.” 

 

“Complete?” asked John.

 

“Yes,” the Elder said, “you must now share your souls by consummation”

 

“Have sex in the Temple, got it.” Rodney said, already taking out a bandage.

 

“Rodney!” John said, slightly horrified, but not really surprised. “You can’t say it like _that_.”

 

“What?” he said, wrapping his hand, “It’s what he said.” And a glance at the Elder showed he was just smiling at them, so Rodney continued, “See? He doesn’t mind, now let's go.” And he was already halfway up the steps to the temple, taking out his tablet, too distracted to notice what it had sounded like to the village people and the Elder.

 

But no one was minding; in fact, the crowd was dispersing again.

 

“How long do we stay in there?” John asked the Elder.

 

“One moonrise and one sunrise. We will bring food at sunset and second moonrise. Your first meal as a completed couple will be at the morning break, and we will celebrate.”

 

“Thanks,” he said and followed Rodney up the stairs, where the scientist was impatiently waiting.

 

They entered together and the door slid shut behind them sealing them in. There was just enough light to see by coming from the tiny windows set high in the walls, and there was a raised half pillar-thing in the middle of the square room. Rodney instantly moved to it while John lingered by the door, looking at the hieroglyphs on the wall with a flash light.

 

“So much for Temple of Light.” John muttered, turning on his radio, “Teyla? Do you read me?”

 

Teyla’s voice came in through the radio, “Yes, Colonel, I can hear you.”

 

“OK, the deal is we’re going to have to stay here ‘till dawn tomorrow, the Elder said he’ll take care of us, bring us food and stuff, why don’t you start the negotiations, it’s not like you need us for that.”

 

“Yes, Colonel,” she replied and he could hear the smile in her voice. 

 

“Sheppard out,” he said with a smile of his own.

 

“Hey,” Rodney called, snapping his fingers at him, “it says we need 2 pairs of hands to light this.”

 

John tucked his flashlight in to its pocket and moved towards Rodney, who continued, “I can’t believe we were blessed by Alfred, Stewart and Henry. I mean, I knew a guy called Henry. Wouldn’t be able to bless anything even if he tried. Every third word _wasn’t_ a swear word for him, it was disconcerting to be—put your hands here and here—to be blessed by him, eukh.” He shuddered and the lights came on, not very bright; the walls seemed to glow, but there was no original source. “We’ll have to get Carson to look at these when we get back.” Rodney was saying, peeling at the bandage around his hand, the wound was already scabbing over. “So, how many times have we been married now? Six?”

 

“Seven,” corrected John, “remember the one with the trees?” 

 

“Oh, yeah, I always forget that one, but you’ve got to admit, first blood share.” He wiggled the fingers on his bloody hand. 

 

“Hmm,” John agreed, already back at the hieroglyphs, “but we did have that saliva share once, and a spit shake.” He grinned.

 

“Yeah,” Rodney, in contrast, frowned, “and they both came from the same solar system, I’m sure Dr. Jackson would just love that one.”

 

“So," John said, taking a deep breath, "do you want to see the shiny energy source first or do you want to consummate our marriage first? ‘Cause I really want to try this one," John gestured a hieroglyph-type thing, "but I don’t think you’d be able to move afterwards, for a while at least.”

 

“What?” Rodney said, moving to stand next to John. He stared at the hieroglyph John was pointing at, then he moved his head to the side. “Is that—” he stopped himself and they both looked at the pillar-thing. John waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

 

It took Rodney a moment to get moving again. “Right, I’ll just—” he pointed at his set-up and then set to work.

 

A few minutes later John stopped him, “You hear that too, right? The music?”

 

“Yeah it came on with the lights, I think,” Rodney replied, not looking up from his tablet.

 

John nodded, relieved: just because it sounded like the music he heard on Atlantis, didn't mean it was the same.

 

When John was inspecting the last picture, Rodney yelled out “Done!” he threw his pen down, “I’m done!” He held up both hands as if waiting for it to explode, when it didn’t, he got up. “I’m done!” he said again and shoved John against the wall, crushing their lips together in an almost desperate kiss. 

 

“Whoa, take it easy, Rodney,” John said, reluctantly pulling away. “We have until tomorrow morning.”

 

“It’s been ten days,” was the reply.

 

“You’re the one who doesn’t like to have sex if one of us is sick, and I wasn’t even sick. Beckett just had me in for observation.”

 

“I take it back,” he said, nibbling on John’s jaw, “I take it all back, just—” he groaned into his neck. “Please?”

 

“Well,” John allowed, “since you said please.” And he claimed Rodney’s mouth with his own.

Some time later, when the sunlight through the windows had turned orange, a small panel in the door opened and a tray with food was passed in, and along with the almost rice and could be beef, there was a whole bowl of fruit–cherries, strawberries, grapes—cream and for some reason, olive oil.

“They seem very comfortable with this,” Rodney said, holding up the olive oil and grinning, putting it to the side.

“So, what did the shiny energy source tell you?” John asked, knowing it would annoy Rodney to mention it was shiny again and sure enough— 

“It’s not shiny, OK? You saw it yourself, no shininess at all and it’s of no use to us either.  It’s a ZPM, but nearly depleted; it’s enough to keep their shields running for at least another 500 years,” he said waving his hand as if plucking the number out of thin air, “but it’s not nearly enough to get our stuff running.”

“Damn,” said John, hardly sounding disappointed at all. Instead he dipped a strawberry in the cream and ate it.

***

When the sun left the horizon the next day, the door opened and they were fully dressed and waiting for it. 

They found a large crowd waiting for them, clapping and cheering them on. Rodney blushed, but John just held up a hand and waved, making the crowd double their efforts.

“I’ve always wanted to do that,” he grinned at Rodney and Rodney couldn’t help but laugh. 

They found Teyla and Ronon grinning at them at the front of the crowd, which, unsurprisingly, started to disperse the moment the newly wed couple became uninteresting, which was starting to creep John out, how they just congregated and disappeared so suddenly, with no other signals. It was like some one had a crowd on/off switch. 

“How was your night?” Teyla asked them, still grinning.

“It was OK,” John replied, “quiet,” and she smiled, knowing he was lying.

***

Dr. Beckett gave them the regular post-mission check up when they got back, clucking over them and talking about dangerous rituals and blood bourn illnesses, but he patched them up and they went to the debriefing with matching bandages around their hands. 

At the debriefing, Elizabeth informed them that while they where in the Temple, Teyla had negotiated for some of the strawberries, and they now had some new allies. 

“Cool,” John said, leaning back in his chair.

“You do realize, however, that you’ll have to pretend to be married to Rodney every time you go there,” Elizabeth said with a completely straight face.

“Oh, well,” John said, “what’s a little pretending for the good of Atlantis.”

“You make it sound like it's a burden to be married to me,” Rodney said, indignantly, “I’ll have you know, I could be a very good husband.” 

“Hmm,” Elizabeth said, “I thought you would be the wife in this relationship.”

John’s eyes seemed to pop out of his head at that and Rodney spluttered. Elizabeth gave a triumphant smile and shooed them out of her office.

***

That night, as they were falling asleep with Rodney half sprawled over him, he heard the music again. 

“Rodney,” he whispered.

“Hmm?” Rodney replied, not opening his eyes.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” he mumbled in to his chest.

“That music.” There was no reply, “Rodney?” But too late, he’d fallen asleep. John was too exhausted to pursue it tonight, so he let himself drift of too.

***

It took a week and a half for their hands to heal (John’s was faster by a day, a fact he used to his best advantage) but when Rodney’s bandage was off, the first thing he did when they where alone was run his left hand up John’s neck and through his hair, the other hand under his shirt to feel warm skin. 

“I’ve been waiting to do that,” he murmured, against John’s lips as he tightened his fingers around the soft strands. He felt a tiny pinch on his index finger but ignored it because John’s mouth was moving down his jaw and— 

“Wait, what’s that?” he asked, frowning

“What's what?” John murmured in to his neck, not focusing on anything else.

“That music,” he said faintly. He was feeling lightheaded.

“What?” John said, surprised. He pulled back and strained his ears, and, yes there it was, just at the edge of hearing, but then Rodney’s knees gave way as he passed out. 

John lowered him to the ground and turned on his radio.

“Carson!” he almost yelled, “you better get down here right now, Rodney just collapsed.”

***

“—should wake up any minute now.” The words floated in through darkness, “We’ll be able to figure everything out then.” The Scottish accent was impossible to misplace.

Rodney tried to open his eyes but the light seemed to assault him so he closed them again and groaned.

“And there he is now,” Carson said, too cheerful.

He tried again, this time slower and the infirmary came in to view. He saw Carson standing on his left, John and Elizabeth on his right and Ronon and Teyla behind them and to the side.

“‘Morning, sleepyhead,” John said. He was smiling, but he looked pale. Elizabeth, on the other hand, looked ready to burst with happiness, and Carson didn’t look worried either. What kind of reaction is this? He was in the infirmary, damn it! Wait.

“Why am I here?” he asked, looking around.

“What is the last thing you remember?” Carson asked.

Rodney tried to remember and images came back, John’s quarters, his hand on warm skin and left hand, just healed, in soft hair and then nothing, but he couldn’t tell them the last thing he remembered was feeling up the Commanding Military Officer of Atlantis.

“Um,” he stopped and glanced at John, sitting up and buying for time, “I was at the Colonel’s quarters.” Oh God, he hoped John would pick the story up from there, but John looked as dismayed as he was.

Carson, however, had other ideas. “Where was your left hand, Rodney?” he asked, and he tried not to blush.

“In… in Sheppard’s hair.” And… oh no, he was blushing!

“Did you feel a small prick of some sort?” And now John was blushing and Elizabeth was really trying not to laugh and he could even see Teyla covering her mouth, her shoulders shaking. 

Carson gave them all a Look. “I meant like a prickle, a pinch—”

Rodney snapped his fingers, suddenly remembering, “Wait, yes I did!”

“What?!” John said, looking half way between horror and indignation.

“Look, I felt a weird pinch on my finger,” he held up his index finger, “but I didn’t say anything because I was… distracted, uh because… I heard music! That’s right I heard music!” he told Carson, just remembering. 

Carson nodded and picked up a small see through bottle of the side table. It looked empty. “We found this little thing attached to you, we where lucky it caught the light.”

Rodney took it of him to see the tiny golden beetle sitting at the bottom, as he watched, the golden shells moved up and it unfolded its wings, delicate see through things that looked like glass. 

“It probably attached itself to the Colonel’s scalp when you were on PX7-653, when he collapsed the first time, we couldn’t find it because we didn’t know what we were looking for—”

Rodney snorted, “It was hiding in all that hair,” he scoffed. Ronon and Teyla grinned at that, but John glared at him. 

Carson continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted, “I think it releases a chemical that has the same effects of morphine; relaxation, euphoria and I think the music was a side effect.”

“Cool, can I see?” John asked, reaching out a hand and Rodney handed it to him. “No wonder I could never find who was making the music, but wait, we both heard it in the temple.”

“Some of the drug must have gotten in to his system after the ‘blood share’” he said and you could just _hear_ the air quotes. 

“And that’s probably why I could still hear it after Rodney fainted…”John said, nodding

“We’ve talked about this,” Rodney said warningly, “I don’t faint.”

“Technically it’s getting too relaxed, too fast,” said Carson, “I’ll have to check with my pharmacologists, but I think it gives a massive dose to start with, then it gets less as time passes to a regulated amount, it’s really quite fascinating.”

“Thank you, Carson,” Elizabeth said, “good work. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do. Let me know when you’re cleared, Rodney.”

“Will do,” he said and she walked out. Carson turned the other way and went to his office. 

Teyla and Ronon came forward and Teyla touched his shoulder. “I am happy you are alright,” she said.

“I’ll save you a pudding,” Ronon told him.

“Thanks,” he said grinning at them, and they left, too.

Now he was left alone with John, who touched his hand, rubbing his knuckles over Rodney’s, “I’m glad you’re OK, too,” he said quietly. “You gave me a scare.”

Rodney gave him a small smile, “Sorry,” he said, averting his eyes. “We should really stop doing that.”

John gave a huff of laughter, “Yeah. Hey I better go too, I have a bunch of things I gotta do, but I’ll come back when I’m done.” 

“Oh,” Rodney brightened, “can you get me coffee on your way back?”

“Not unless Carson clears you.” He grinned and walked out. 

The End.


End file.
